Repairing the World

 Mobilizing Jews to Protect the Environment

This Hanukkah, in a season of rededication, let us dedicate ourselves to repairing the world through protecting our environment.

What’s Jewish about caring for the environment? This is a core question that we, as leaders of Jewish organizations, ask ourselves all the time. The Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL) was formed at the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) in 1993 to face humanity’s looming environmental crisis and to mobilize the Jewish community to protect God’s creation. Inspired by the Jewish traditions of stewardship, respect for God’s creatures, injunctions not to be wasteful and traditions of social justice, our shared mission is to unite the Jewish community in environmental efforts.

For the past 10 years, we have focused more and more on climate change and energy security as part of our commitment to the notion of tikkun olam, repairing that which is broken in the world, a central value in modern Jewish life. As it says in a Jewish commentary on the biblical Book of Ecclesiastes:

“When God created the first human beings, God led them around the Garden of Eden and said: ‘Look at my works! See how beautiful they are – how excellent! For your sake, I created them all. See to it that you do not spoil and destroy My world; for if you do, there will be no one else to repair it.’” (Midrash Kohelet Rabbah, 1 on Ecclesiastes 7:13)

This inspires the urgent need to transform the world’s energy sources and to reduce fossil fuel consumption. As Jews, along with all Americans who care about these issues, we are constantly reminded of our responsibility to care for the most vulnerable and to be aware that those who have contributed the least to causing climate change often suffer the most from its impacts. We are also particularly aware that reducing dependence on oil from unfriendly and repressive regimes is an important national security goal.

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